OathsAndBonds.comhttp://www.oathsandbonds.com
Promoting Accountability and JusticeWed, 15 Oct 2014 11:14:28 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.191 in 10 adults in Utah may be carrying a firearmhttp://www.oathsandbonds.com/1-10-adults-utah-may-carrying-firearm/
http://www.oathsandbonds.com/1-10-adults-utah-may-carrying-firearm/#commentsWed, 15 Oct 2014 10:11:22 +0000http://www.oathsandbonds.com/?p=302Recently feminist Anita Sarkeesian was scheduled to lecture at Utah State University. She decided to cancel upon not only receiving a death threat, but learning that students are allowed to carry concealed firearms on campus. I’ve known many teachers and students who

]]>Recently feminist Anita Sarkeesian was scheduled to lecture at Utah State University. She decided to cancel upon not only receiving a death threat, but learning that students are allowed to carry concealed firearms on campus. I’ve known many teachers and students who carry firearms on university grounds, even one fellow student who has open carried a sidearm for the past three years with no problem. This may come as a surprise to many in Utah but especially those visiting the state. Although because the entire concept of “concealing” a firearm means that no one is meant to know about it, it’s difficult to comprehend just how many people may be carrying a firearm.

There are two important places from which I obtain my statistical data. The first is what is reported by Utah’s Public Safety Department 2014 Quarter 3 statistics. According to their data, 197,239 Utah residents currently have a permit to carry a concealed firearm. According to U.S. Census data, the 2013 population of Utah was an estimated 2,900,872 with an estimated 1,870,144 residents over the age of 21. I’ll simply refer to this group as “adults”.

Using this data we can determine the percentage of adult Utah residents who have a Concealed Firearm Permit (CFP) is ~10.5% or roughly 1 in 10.

Let’s bring this into perspective. Statistically, that’s two CFP holders for every classroom of adults and maybe four for every movie theater full of adults. I don’t know how many adult shoppers are in Walmart at any given time, but I’d wager there’s at least one CFP holder in a Utah Walmart at any given time. Even if these estimates are off by half, we’d be left with 1 in every 20 adults who are CFP holders in Utah. That is still a very surprising estimate. While I personally know many CFP holders, I would never anticipate the number to be that high.

This obviously doesn’t represent an exact number of people we see every day actually carrying their firearms. Just because someone owns a permit doesn’t mean they carry a weapon all the time, if ever. Many people choose to obtain a CFP to make it easier to purchase firearms at the gun shop counter. Another caveat to this is the gender difference. I have no data to back up the next claim, but I’m comfortable saying men carry firearms considerably more often than women. Which would mean the percentage of males carrying a firearm is much more than 10%, making the percentage of female CFP holders much lower. Though we shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves. There is really no effective way to determine how many CFP holders are actually carrying a firearm in public (or at home for that matter).

These numbers bring into perspective how many Utah residents are both gun enthusiasts as well as those who genuinely care about independently protecting themselves and the people around them. We must remember, the right to life and liberty belongs to citizens. The principle responsibility to protect those virtues belong to the citizens. Law Enforcement and Military responsibility is simply a second layer delegation to protect the life and liberty of our communities. Many debate the moral consequences of requiring people to actually have a permit in order to carry a firearm. Regardless, CFP permits have enabled us to gather hard data on Utah residents interested personal protection through firearm ownership.

Sarkeesian apparently doesn’t feel the same way toward concealed carry like many of the folks in Utah she wanted to speak with. According to her twitter feed the police refused to sweep for firearms on the civilian conceal carry population.

Forced to cancel my talk at USU after receiving death threats because police wouldn’t take steps to prevent concealed firearms at the event.

I believe this calls for praise for that communities law enforcement for doing the right thing.

]]>http://www.oathsandbonds.com/1-10-adults-utah-may-carrying-firearm/feed/0Petitions to Unseal Affidavit – Unseal Warranthttp://www.oathsandbonds.com/petitions-to-unseal-affidavit-unseal-warrant/
http://www.oathsandbonds.com/petitions-to-unseal-affidavit-unseal-warrant/#commentsFri, 25 Jan 2013 23:20:13 +0000http://www.oathsandbonds.com/?p=275You can see below the petitions used to request from the court to unseal the affidavit used to obtain the sealed search warrant used by the ATF in their search and seizure raid. See the list of events in chronological

]]>http://www.oathsandbonds.com/petitions-to-unseal-affidavit-unseal-warrant/feed/0Photos of Warehouse and Home After ATF Raidhttp://www.oathsandbonds.com/photos-of-warehouse-and-home-after-atf-raid/
http://www.oathsandbonds.com/photos-of-warehouse-and-home-after-atf-raid/#commentsThu, 17 Jan 2013 04:40:22 +0000http://www.oathsandbonds.com/?p=246While we didn’t have the opportunity to take many photos of the swat team during the raid, we do have photos of our warehouse and home after the ATF raid. There are many things to learn by what the ATF

]]>While we didn’t have the opportunity to take many photos of the swat team during the raid, we do have photos of our warehouse and home after the ATF raid. There are many things to learn by what the ATF left behind.

Below you can view the photos of the house after the raid. Aside from leaving our beds against the wall and drawers and cupboards disorganized and messy, they left the biggest mess in the home office. The ATF goons took most business documents they decided they didn’t want and left them in one giant pile in the corner. This is nothing more than vandalism. The time it takes to organize and determine a place for each document only takes away from our time to run a business and make a living. When is vandalism justified?

Below are links to photos of a couple drawers at our warehouse office. Kept here were the record books (bound books) which contain information on transactions of various firearm transfers. This is one of the biggest reasons later mentioned by the ATF as the reasons for evening raiding the warehouse. These items were SPECIFICALLY mentioned in the affidavit!!! This is evidence of the incompetence of the ATF and their true intention: taking firearms away from the people.

Below are some photos of the entire warehouse where a Harley parts business and Gun parts business store product. You can see how the ATF team went through every box to find as many items of interest as they could. Across from the old police car were maybe a dozen crates of gun parts for a rifle that has yet to enter mainstream production. That entire project has had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested into it. In one day the ATF seized almost the collection of parts. Why they didn’t take all of the crates is beyond me.

At the very bottom you can see the entrance door of the warehouse was broken as they forced entry. We asked Agent Everitt if that would be replaced and she said yes that will be paid for by the ATF. Of course, without an attorney, third party, of voice recorder present she will get away without paying for this damage. Note: There is no evidence of any firearms manufacturing or tables or benches assembly of firearms as claimed in the affidavit by Steve Barlow via Everitt!

Below are photos of some specific items of interest to the ATF. Apparent are various guns, receivers and cut Sten & AK receiver sections. The same type the ATF falsely claim in their SLC forfeiture action were in fact really machine guns. These items were sitting, just as shown, in plain sight and the ATF clowns evidently overlooked as “contraband.”

]]>http://www.oathsandbonds.com/photos-of-warehouse-and-home-after-atf-raid/feed/0ATF Raid – Tyler’s Narrationhttp://www.oathsandbonds.com/atf-raid-tylers-narration/
http://www.oathsandbonds.com/atf-raid-tylers-narration/#commentsSat, 22 Dec 2012 04:55:53 +0000http://www.oathsandbonds.com/?p=209ATF Raid – Tyler’s narration When I was 19 years old, at my home in Delta, Utah, on the morning of Tuesday Oct 23rd, 2007, at about 9:30am, I was in my bed and heard a commotion in the hall

When I was 19 years old, at my home in Delta, Utah, on the morning of Tuesday Oct 23rd, 2007, at about 9:30am, I was in my bed and heard a commotion in the hall way. There was yelling and loud banging. The only word I could make out was “WARRANT!” It was not in a voice recognizable to me. I looked outside my window and saw a few vehicles in the long driveway, one of them being a local Millard County Sheriff Deputy’s truck. I got out of bed and got a little more dressed. I opened my door and saw armed SWAT men outside my room with large military-style rifles. Some had actually walked past my bedroom door in the next room. They had turned around when they saw me and demanded I place my hands on my head. They identified themselves as ATF and I also saw the markings on their gear.

A representation of the raid at the York house

They took me outside, padded me down, handcuffed, and arrested me. I sat in a lawn chair on the lawn as they continued to search the rest of my home. At this point, I hadn’t realized my father had gone to our warehouse in response to an alarm notification. When they asked me who was in the home I was responding, “My father and my grandmother.” After some time (maybe 30 minutes), they walked me back inside so I could finally use the bathroom. After which I was escorted into our family room where my grandmother usually spends her time in a soft chair. She was there, still in the chair. She explained to me that when they came in they just made sure she stayed in the chair as it is difficult for her to move.

One of the female ATF agents approached me while sitting on the couch soon after being led into the family room. She identified herself as Agent Sonja Everitt and explained she was a lead agent in charge of the raid. She showed me a folded piece of paper which was labelled “Search Warrant” except it was sealed so normally I wouldn’t be able to see it. However, she said she would let me look at it. I had never seen a search warrant and didn’t know what to look for. I had asked her why they were raiding our home and as she was trying to be polite, smiley and speaking softly, she explained “We’re investigating your father for a crime. You don’t have to worry about anything. It’s your father that we’re investigating.” Sonja left the room. Another male agent in the room was there guarding us. My grandmother finally asked “exactly what has my son done to deserve this?” To which his response was “Your son has been selling illegal machine guns!” in a very aggressive manner. Through conversation with this agent, he apparently was a rent-a-cop type swat member. He was not employed directly for the ATF, but what he described was some national swat team. He explained that he normally assisted law enforcement throughout the Salt Lake City area with their needs. I don’t remember his name, but I do remember he said he held a previous job as a border patrol agent.

Sonja Everitt had come back a couple of other times while I was in the room. One of the times she said they could remove the handcuffs from me, which they did. Agent Everitt explained that my father was brought back to the home, but they told him he needed to leave. My father got in another vehicle in our home and left as was asked of him. They said I could also leave if I wanted. As my grandmother wasn’t very mobile, I chose to stay with her until the agents were finished. At one point, they allowed me to go make her some soup and monitored me as I did so. Typically keeping one of the agents between me and the main office where they were spending most of their time. The office in the home was where the business records and most firearms were kept. I did watch maybe 20 armed agents walking throughout the home looking through about every corner of the house.

I watched them take mine and my grandmothers computers with them as well. At first, they were taking the monitors and keyboards with them. When I asked why they were taking those items, they responded that they can take whatever they want. A few moments later one of the agents said he had inquired and admitted he didn’t need to take the keyboards or monitors. Only the “CPU’s” he said. Which apparently to them means the whole computer tower. At about 3:00 pm in the afternoon, they gave me a copy of the “sealed search warrant” and a list of items they seized. They said they were headed to warehouse to finish with their search and seizure.

After I called my dad he returned to our house and I gave him the copies of the papers the raid agents had left with me. We noticed the warrant had no mention of any specific crime. It just listed a bunch of generic storage items and other technology hardware items which would “contain evidence related to this crime.” My name, nor my grandmother, Betty, was ever mentioned on their warrant. They still took our personal property, as well as property that belonged to other individuals not specifically mentioned on the warrant.

My dad and I looked the house over and found all my father’s personal & business files of papers had been dumped into one large pile on the floor of his office. It appeared to us that all firearms and most all computer related items were gone.

That evening, at about 10, my father took me with him to the family warehouse as the search warrant had a dead line limit of 10:00 pm. He said he was going to kick them out of the building. When we arrived at the warehouse the agents looked like they were winding down for the day and getting ready to leave. Two female ATF agents identified as Agent Sonja Everitt and Lori Dyer were the last to leave. My dad had a conversation with them and asked them what the raid was about – what crime were they investigating? Agent Everitt said that is what they were investigating – If my Dad had committed a crime. He asked them if they found no crime was committed then they would be returning the property? Both agents affirmed they would: “Yes – Of course” they said. I asked specifically when the computers would be returned. They told me it shouldn’t be longer than a “couple of weeks.”

Agent Everitt explained their technicians were mirror the harddrives inside the computers and put that mirror copy on new harddrives and then return the computers; keeping the originals. I had a number of my personal property items taken by the raid agents from my room including some firearms and my computer equipment.

—–

I have called the office of Agent Everitt and spoke to her two different times. The first time was about two weeks after the raid. She explained they had not gotten to the computers yet. Another time was around December. She had expected the computers to be returned to us before the end of the month. I was particularly anxious as I had been planning for several months at this point to move to Canada for ecclesiastical service over the next two years, beginning the end of December 2007.

After I had returned at the end of 2009, we still had not received any of the items they had taken. Nor was anyone charged with any crime. They had not once contacted us directly concerning the entire ordeal. It wasn’t until 2011 that I had finally made contact with the ATF office again to get an update on the case.

]]>http://www.oathsandbonds.com/atf-raid-tylers-narration/feed/0See The Copy of The Sealed Search Warranthttp://www.oathsandbonds.com/see-the-copy-of-the-sealed-search-warrant/
http://www.oathsandbonds.com/see-the-copy-of-the-sealed-search-warrant/#commentsSat, 15 Dec 2012 09:46:38 +0000http://www.oathsandbonds.com/?p=177Below you can see the copy of the sealed search warrant the ATF Swat team used to break in and enter our home and business warehouse and take all the property inside. Here are jpg scans of the warrant. I

]]>http://www.oathsandbonds.com/see-the-copy-of-the-sealed-search-warrant/feed/0Re-Launch of OathsAndBonds.comhttp://www.oathsandbonds.com/re-launch-of-oathsandbonds/
http://www.oathsandbonds.com/re-launch-of-oathsandbonds/#commentsSat, 15 Dec 2012 05:19:16 +0000http://www.oathsandbonds.com/?p=161OathsAndBonds.com has been re-launched and upgraded to a new platform as to enable new content and information from the users of the site. We intent to update this website with new content on at least a weekly basis. The information

]]>OathsAndBonds.com has been re-launched and upgraded to a new platform as to enable new content and information from the users of the site. We intent to update this website with new content on at least a weekly basis.

The information expected to be updated the most will likely have to do with the experiences we’ve had with the ATF. While there are too many sad experiences to share about them here, the most significant event to be aware of is the swat team raid in 2007.

The content being provided can be complicated and may not make sense right away. We’re trying to convey a lot of material, so please ask questions in the posts of those updates. If you have general questions about the website, who we are or would like more information about us, please use the contact form.